Two Trees, Two Mirrors, Two Births

A Story told in Twos

TWO TREES

"Once upon a time there were two trees. There was a good tree and an evil tree. And the man and the woman decided to eat from the evil tree..."

Wait, there's something wrong here; this isn't how the story goes. Yet, how often do we tell the story this way, allowing wrong impressions to form in our minds.

There indeed were two trees, but they were not the "good tree" and the "evil tree." Only one of the trees has a name that refers to "good and evil." That tree was called the tree of the "Knowledge of Good and Evil." Therefore, man's choice that fateful day was, in large measure, the choice to define good and evil for himself. He was attempting to ascend to a place of judging good from evil in his own abilities and understandings.

James writes the same thing centuries later. He warns us that to ascend to judge YHWH's standards is to fail to live under them. To do so is to fail to humbly allow them to govern our lives. In choosing the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, we are rejecting the Tree of Life; we are rejecting the provision of God offered to us for our eternal well-being; we are rejecting the choice to come into Christ and there find the abundance of life made available to us from our Creator.

TWO MIRRORS

Now let's complete our fast forward to James' letter. In the following passage, we find the two trees replaced with two mirrors.

"1:20 ....for man's anger does not bring about the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the Word Implanted in you, which can save you. 22 Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the Word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But the man who looks intently into the Perfected Law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in all he does."

Notice that the same choice reappears; notice the similarities between the two trees in the garden and the two mirrors.

One mirror reflects the poor soul who is trying his hardest, in himself, to be righteous. He is straining with all the drive and "anger" he can muster to do good and conquer evil. In his attempt to ascend to the seat of judging what is right and wrong for himself, he must intently inspect himself in this mirror; he must do so with the most brutal introspection he can muster in order to detect the least flaw in his character. But alas, he is living out this kind of life under the auspices of his own Knowledge of Good and Evil. The harder he tries, the more forgetful, deluded, and self-righteous he becomes, all the while unable to attain the very righteousness of God that his own "anger" so desperately strives after.

The other mirror reflects to us the Tree of Life; it reveals the true provision of God offered to us for our eternal well-being; it reveals to us the Finished Work of Jesus' righteousness; it reveals to us the Completed Law - completed by Jesus at the cross - that gives Freedom; it reveals the abundance of life made available to us from our Creator. Humbly accepting this Implanted Word, and continuing to do so - that is, continuing to humbly accept this Implanted Word and thereby rejecting the inherent self-focus and pride revealed in the first mirror - results in God's blessing!

TWO BIRTHS

Earlier in the same chapter, James describes two birth cycles: the birth cycle of death and the birth cycle of life. The two births correspond to the two trees and the two mirrors; they point to the very same realities.

The first birth cycle is the very poignant and graphic picture of death's pregnancy and birth:

"14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire (attraction, temptation). 15 Then desire when it has conceived ("entertaining" the desire, conception) bears sin (pregnancy, as in 'she bore him a son'), and sin when it is full-term delivers (births) death."

The human condition is certainly in a bad way when left to its own desires and its own definitions of good and evil. The result, unavoidably, is death, eternal death.

Just as it was man's own desires that "saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise," so man's desires still continue to engender death in him as he chooses his own desires and his own definitions of good and evil over a humble receptivity, by faith, of God's provided Life, the Implanted Word.

But - and here is the great "But" of the Gospel! - again the Tree of Life appears: the Provision of God for man's well-being, the abundance of life made available to him from his Creator. This Life appears in the form of a New Birth given from above by God Himself.

"17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father... 18 He chose to give us birth through the Word of Truth...."

The beautiful thing here is that the choice to engender and birth this New Life within us begins with God's choice and determination to give us re-birth through the power of the Gospel's Word. My prayer for you and for me is that we would exhibit the same humble receptivity, by faith, of this Implanted Word of God, the Gospel concerning His Son Jesus, that was shown by Mary:

"Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your Word."

-Royce Douglas